Google bows to EU search demands, offers no detail

The company said on Tuesday, the deadline for telling the EU how it planned to comply, that it would be sharing such a plan with regulators.

No detail was offered, according to a Bloomberg report.

The EU hit the company with a fine of US$2.7 billion in June and told that it end its behaviour within 90 days or else face penalties of up to 56% of the daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet, its parent company.

{loadposition sam08}At the time, Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who is in charge of EU competition policy, said: "Google has come up with many innovative products and services that have made a difference to our lives. That's a good thing.

"But Google's strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn't just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals."

The EU said in an emailed statement that it was Google;'s responsibility to comply with the ruling.

The Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace, a coalition of tech and media companies, called for the Google plan to be made public. It asked the EU to publish details of how Google had breached anti-trust law.

"ICOMP calls for publication of the full commission decision and Google’s remedy proposals so that we and the public generally can compare the proposals (if any) with the Commission’s assessment of Google's wrongdoing," ICOMP chairman Michael Weber said in a statement.

"These affect everyone in the online and mobile worlds, so they must be made public for evaluation.”

The EU said last month that Google could also face a fine over how it pays and limits mobile phone providers who use its Android mobile operating system and app store.

A third investigation, into Google's Adsense advertising service, may also bring a fine; the EU is said to have made a preliminary determination that Google has abused its dominant position.